A Question for Cupid
by qwerty-kitties
Summary: ONESHOT - What is Love? Tabby decides to head straight to the Love God himself to find out.


_Hey all, here's a new little tidbit from me. Nothing special, but something that popped into my head on Monday and written yesterday. It's not necessarily a Valentine's Day fic, but it's got Cupid in it, so I guess that's close enough. ;P_

_This rendition of Cupid, as well as Fairy World and Cosmo and Wanda belong to Butch and Nick. But Tabby belongs to me._

* * *

"Well, this is certainly a surprise!" the small pink haired Love God exclaimed as he opened his front door. "To what do I owe this unexpected visit?"

"Hi Cupid," Tabby said as a small blush crept across her cheeks. "I have a question for you. I-Is this a bad time?" Cupid smiled.

"Not at all," he said with a slight head shake. "Come in, please." He paused, a questioning look on his face. "Was that your question?"

"Huh? OH! No, no," she replied after a second of confusion. "I just didn't want to bother you, that's all." Cupid waved a dismissive hand as he ushered the teen inside.

"No bother at all, Tabby," he said, leading his guest toward the kitchen table. "My door is always open to inquisitive young maidens!" Tabby laughed as she sat.

"You're such a shameless flirt."

"I'm the God of Love, dear," he replied, sitting opposite her. "That's my job. Coffee?" She shook her head.

"Tea if you have it."

"Certainly." Cupid waved his wand and a cup of hot tea appeared before her, coffee for him. "Now," he said, folding his hands before him. "What brings you by?"

"Well," Tabby sighed, trying to organize her thoughts. "Cosmo and Wanda are here in Fairy World to get their wands recalibrated, and I thought I'd tag along to swing by and see you."

"Well, I'm happy for the company, but you said you had a question?"

"Yeah," she said, leaning forward on her crossed arms. "I do. And I thought I'd come straight to you to hear the answer directly from the horse's mouth. So to speak."

"I'll certainly try to give you as honest an answer as I can," the little Love God replied with a slight nod. "Shoot."

"Okay. Here goes."

The teen took a deep breath before looking him straight in the eye.

"Does love really exist?"

Cupid sat back, his brows furrowing. In all his years as the God of Love, he had honestly never considered a question like this, let alone been asked it.

"I . . ." he stammered once he had found his voice again. "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking."

"Love. Is it real?"

"Is it real?" Cupid repeated, shaking his head slightly. "Tabby, are you saying you think love is a . . . a myth or something?" The teen shook her head.

"Not a myth exactly, but . . ." She paused, her own brows furrowing. "I guess what I want to know is whether or not we feel love because it's REALLY love, or because it's some confused emotion we THINK is love because that's what we're EXPECTED to feel." Cupid was staring at her, an eyebrow raised. "You still have no idea what I'm asking, do you?"

"Not a clue," he said, shaking his head. She sighed.

"This made so much more sense in my head," she muttered, massaging her temples. "I'm not sure how else to explain it."

"Well let's start with the simple things," Cupid said, sliding his coffee cup aside to fold his arms on the table. "Do you love your godparents?"

"Yes. Of course I do."

"Do you think they love you?"

"Yeah, I do. I mean, they do. I mean . . ." She sighed, a small smile on her lips. "Yes, they love me."

"You believe _that's_ real, don't you?" Tabby nodded. "Well then there's your answer."

"But _that's_ not the type of love I'm talking about," she said, shaking her head. "There are different types of love, right?" Cupid nodded.

"Of course," he said, ticking them off on his fingers. "There's the love between a parent and child, between two involved adults, between a person and a pet—"

"Right, so it would stand to reason that some of those might not be _love_ exactly, but a pre-programmed response to certain stimuli."

"You've certainly given this a lot of thought, haven't you?" Cupid asked, an eyebrow raised.

"It's the law of nature, survival of the fittest and all that," she continued, ticking off on her own fingers. "The caveman who was the biggest bread-winner of the tribe pretty much had his pick of the cavewomen. In nature, the buck with the biggest set of antlers got the chicks because that meant he survived the longest. Nowadays, the guy with the most money has the ladies throwing themselves at his feet, and the gals with the biggest . . . ahem, 'assets' get whatever guy they set their sights on. That's not really love, is it?"

"Ah, but that's not _supposed_ to be love," the Love God replied, a slight smile on his lips. "What you've described _is_ pretty much nothing more than the simplest form of hooking up, ie, finding the best partner to support you and take care of all your needs in life. That's not _love_, that's simply _survival_."

"So when did love come into play in relationships?" Tabby asked, her brows furrowed. "Seems like history is just full of people marrying for convenience or power or money or something. Heck, people STILL marry for those reasons. Isn't love supposed to be a factor in such a major event?"

"It _should_ be, and it _is_ in a majority of marriages. You just don't hear about those because they don't generally make for interesting news."

"A full fifty percent of marriages end in divorce in the United States. That doesn't sound like people are marrying out of love to me."

"Love can be a fickle thing, Tabby," Cupid said with a slight shrug. "Just because you fall in love with someone doesn't necessarily mean that you'll love them forever." The teen frowned.

"Well that's kind of depressing. What's the point of falling in love in the first place if you'll end up with nothing more than a broken heart and painful memories when it ends?"

"When did you get so cynical?"

"When I woke up one morning and realized that I was seventeen years old and hadn't had so much as a date let alone my first real kiss," the teen muttered, sipping her tea. She glanced up and caught the Love God smiling and nodding slightly. "Oh, now don't give me that look. This isn't about me. Well, it kinda is, but it's something I've honestly been wondering."

"Uh huh," Cupid said, still smiling. "I understand." Tabby rolled her eyes.

"Aw, forget it," she sighed as she stood. "Thanks for the tea, and I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"Wait a minute, hold on," Cupid said as he zipped in front of her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. Please sit down. I'm enjoying our conversation. Really."

Tabby studied the little Love God for a few seconds before uttering a sigh.

"All right," she said as she sat. "But no more thinking I'm just some emotionally whacked teenager who's freaking out because 'OMG! I have no boyfriend!!', okay? I'm here mostly because I'm honestly curious about love and the various reasons behind it."

"Of course," Cupid said, returning to his own seat. "I my lips are sealed on that." He pulled an imaginary zipper across his lips.

"Thank you."

"Certainly. Now where were we?"

"Uh . . . love is fickle."

"Right," he said with a nod. "Now then, love is, like just about any other emotion, dependant upon various factors. A person's life experience, age and general mental maturity have _a lot _to do with the type of person this individual finds attractive at any given time. In a romantic way, I mean. Sure there are some things that stays with someone as they grow—some ladies seem to go ga-ga over guys with long hair or certain colored eyes, no matter how old they get—but being _attracted_ to these things doesn't necessarily mean that it will lead to a lasting _love_."

"That seems a little odd. Shouldn't you be attracted to the person before any deeper feelings can develop?"

"Yes and no. I mean, it's good to not be completely repulsed by a prospective date, but, on the flipside, a relationship that starts with nothing more than a physical attraction—as in 'Wow you're hot!'—is, generally speaking, not going to develop into anything more than that." He paused for a few seconds, before adding quietly, "This is, incidentally, why your godmother broke up with Juandissimo." Tabby nodded as she took another sip of her tea.

"Doesn't surprise me. Juandissimo doesn't exactly strike me as the sort to put others before himself." Cupid nodded.

"Which is precisely why Wanda eventually fell out of love with him. If she was ever _in_ love with him in the first place." Tabby gave him a confused look.

"You don't know? Aren't you the God of Love, the guy with all the little arrows designed to make people fall for each other?" He offered her a small smile.

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not personally responsible for making each and every person fall in love," he said, a slight blush crossing his cheeks. "I make love _available_ to them, but do not _make_ them do anything. There is still a portion of free will involved, you know."

"But I thought the whole idea of _falling_ for someone meant that you couldn't really help yourself," Tabby said, sitting back in her chair with her arms crossed. "That's why it's called 'falling' in love as opposed to 'choosing' to be in love. 'Falling' gives the impression of lack of control. Like it just kind of happened."

"In most cases, it does just kind of happen."

Tabby frowned, her brows furrowed.

"That doesn't make sense."

"Love is hard to make sense _of_," Cupid laughed, sipping his coffee. "It can cause wars and topple kingdoms. Make you feel like your flying or dying. Make perfectly normal and intelligent people act like fools. It's actually very hard to define."

"So I won't get an actual answer to my question, will I?" Cupid shrugged.

"In all honesty, I'm still not exactly sure what your question means," he said simply. "Are you asking whether someone feels love because it's REAL LOVE or because that's what they think they SHOULD feel?" Tabby nodded, a relieved smile on her lips.

"Yes! That's exactly what I want to know. How can you tell the difference?"

"Well . . ."

Cupid paused as he thought. IS there a difference? If so, how could he explain it? Was it possible to adequately explain an emotion, a feeling? He looked at Tabby, who was watching him intently. Her history flashed through his mind, and an idea surfaced.

"Tabby, you love your godparents, right?" She rolled her eyes.

"I think we've already established that I do," she said with a sigh.

"Why?"

This question caught her slightly off guard and she straightened with a slight jerk.

"Well . . . because they've always been there for me. They've stood by me no matter what. They're responsible for taking care of me and raising me and . . . well, they're basically my parents." Cupid nodded.

"You're sure _that_ love is real, right?" Tabby shrugged.

"I guess so."

"What about your real parents? Your _biological_ parents, I mean," he quickly added when the teen shot him an annoyed look.

"What about 'em?"

"Do you love them?"

Tabby's brows knitted together.

"Tabby? Do you love your biological parents?"

"Well . . ."

"Don't think about it," Cupid said, leaning forward on his crossed arms. "What was the first answer that popped into your head?"

A blush crept over the teen's cheeks, and she cast her gaze into her cup.

"No." It was no louder than a harsh whisper. "I don't."

"Why not?" he asked softly. "Don't you think you SHOULD love the people responsible for giving you life?" Her blush deepened.

"Yes."

"But you can't, can you?" She shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because they're strangers to me," she replied, her head still lowered and her hands wrapped tightly around her cup. "I can't remember the last time we had an actual conversation, let alone actually did anything together. They're just . . ." She shrugged. "I've tried. I can't."

"That's what this is really all about, isn't it?" Cupid asked gently. "It wasn't to find out if love is real, but whether or not it was okay for you to feel nothing for your biological parents. You thought there was something wrong with you, didn't you? Because you couldn't even fake any feelings for them."

Tabby sat still for a few seconds before shrugging slightly.

"People are always so shocked if they find out I don't really care about my bio parents," she said quietly, still gazing into her tea. "They get this shocked look before they say 'But they're your _parents_!'." She uttered a soft laugh as she looked up at the Love God across from her. "That's what they _always_ say--'_But they're your parents!_', as if that should be reason enough to love them, ya know?" Cupid nodded. "But sharing blood and DNA with someone doesn't mean that you automatically _have_ to love them."

"But you started to believe it, didn't you?"

Tabby shrugged again, uttering a long sigh.

"When you hear something enough times, you tend to start thinking about it more and more," she said, swallowing the last of her tea and pushing the cup away. "They're my _parents_. What kind of horrible person doesn't love her own parents?"

"You're not a horrible person, because you DO love your parents. Just not the ones who gave birth to you, that's all."

"That's something else that bothers me."

"What do you mean?"

"Am I just transferring the love that _should_ go to my bio parents to Cosmo and Wanda?" she asked quietly. "I mean, I feel like I love those little fairies, believe me, I love 'em to pieces, but . . ."

"You're wondering if _that_ love is real since you can't feel anything for the people you _should_," Cupid finished for her. Tabby looked at him for a few seconds before nodding slowly.

"Yeah," she sighed. "That's pretty much it."

"Tabby, honey, it's okay to feel . . . indifferent towards two people who haven't been an important part of your life," Cupid said gently, offering the teen a small smile. "And it's perfectly okay to feel love, yes _real_ love, for two other people—or fairies, as it were—who _have_ been there for you." He paused, studying her for a few seconds. "But I think you already knew that, didn't you? You just needed me to tell you it really was okay." Tabby blushed.

"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't simply being selfish and making up justifications for it," she said with a small smile. "Thanks, Cupid. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me like this."

"Not a problem, Tabby," Cupid said, smiling. "I'm glad to be able to help."

"You did." Tabby offered him a smile before glancing at her watch. "Well, I'm sorry to drink and run, but I'd better get going. I did enjoy the conversation, though. It cleared up some things I was curious about regarding falling in love. In a romantic way, I mean." Cupid nodded.

"I enjoyed it too. You posed some thought provoking counter-arguments." Tabby laughed as she stood.

"Wanda would have said I was just being difficult," she said as she stretched. "We've gone a few rounds in the past over my argumentative nature."

"Ah, but that's the nature of families, isn't it?" Cupid asked as he escorted Tabby to the door. "Arguments are simply par for the course." The teen thought for a second before shrugging.

"I guess you're right," she said as he opened the door for her. She stepped through before stopping and turning to the Love God, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Something wrong?"

"Cosmo hasn't bribed you to keep guys away from me, has he?" she asked, an eyebrow raised. "He can get a little over-protective sometimes and I honestly wouldn't put it past him. You'd tell me if he did, wouldn't you?" Cupid laughed.

"Tabby, you have my word that there is no supernatural or magical force keeping you from getting a date," he said, shaking his head slightly. "And no, before you ask, you are not ugly or 'scaring' anyone away. Sometimes it just takes guys a while to see a special person, that's all."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Believe me, you'll find someone. Or he'll find you. Of that I'm sure."

Tabby studied the Love God for a few seconds before smiling.

"You're a sweetie, Cupid, you really are," she said as she placed a small kiss on his cheek. He smiled.

"Not as sweet as you, my dear," he replied, returning the kiss. Tabby laughed again as she stepped off the porch.

"Shameless flirt!" she called over her shoulder as she hurried off.

"Love God! Part of the job!" he returned, closing the door with a smile.

* * *

_Like I said, nothing much, but the idea intrigued me when it assualted my brain. Tabby wouldn't have much in the way of 'romantic relationships' because of the secretive nature of having fairies, so I figured she'd be just a teeny bit cynical when it comes to that particular emotion, and who better to confront about it than the God of Love himself, right? The lucky girl._

_Toss me a review and lemme know what you all think, if you please. Thanks for reading. :)_


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